Title |
Frugal innovation in medicine for low resource settings
|
---|---|
Published in |
BMC Medicine, July 2016
|
DOI | 10.1186/s12916-016-0651-1 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Viet-Thi Tran, Philippe Ravaud |
Abstract |
Whilst it is clear that technology is crucial to advance healthcare: innovation in medicine is not just about high-tech tools, new procedures or genome discoveries. In constrained environments, healthcare providers often create unexpected solutions to provide adequate healthcare to patients. These inexpensive but effective frugal innovations may be imperfect, but they have the power to ensure that health is within reach of everyone. Frugal innovations are not limited to low-resource settings: ingenuous ideas can be adapted to offer simpler and disruptive alternatives to usual care all around the world, representing the concept of "reverse innovation". In this article, we discuss the different types of frugal innovations, illustrated with examples from the literature, and argue for the need to give voice to this neglected type of innovation in medicine. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 9 | 41% |
United States | 5 | 23% |
France | 2 | 9% |
Australia | 1 | 5% |
Pakistan | 1 | 5% |
Unknown | 4 | 18% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 11 | 50% |
Scientists | 7 | 32% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 3 | 14% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 5% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
South Africa | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 191 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 34 | 18% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 23 | 12% |
Student > Bachelor | 19 | 10% |
Researcher | 18 | 9% |
Other | 13 | 7% |
Other | 39 | 20% |
Unknown | 46 | 24% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 41 | 21% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 29 | 15% |
Engineering | 21 | 11% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 13 | 7% |
Social Sciences | 10 | 5% |
Other | 30 | 16% |
Unknown | 48 | 25% |